ATOMIC ENERGY: Power Play

ATOMIC ENERGY
Power Play
For the first time, the Atomic Energy
Commission opened public hearings last week on whether to approve
construction of a nuclear power plant. Technically, AEC was to decide
if a privately financed 100,000-kw. reactor being built at Monroe,
Mich, will endanger the lives and health of more than 2,500,000
residents of nearby Detroit and Toledo. But proponents of public power,
spearheaded by United Automobile Workers President Walter Reuther,
wanted to turn the hearings into a decisive round in the running battle
over whether nuclear-generated electricity is to be pioneered by the
Government or by U.S. industry....